Wednesday, 19 July 2017

Tepco to release radioactive waste into the Pacific

Tepco
has confirmed it plans to release the radioactive material from the
Fukushima plant into the ocean saying that the “decision has
already been made”.

The decision has an upset local fisherman who
says the decision will kill their industry as a result of a massive
loss of sea life.Under the controversial plan, which could be a
massive environmental disaster, the radioactive material tritium,
which is being used to cool reactors whose cooling systems were
damaged in 2011 tsunami, will now be released into the ocean.

rt.com
reports: "I'm very sorry that Tepco has been prolonging making a
decision," the new chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company
Holdings (TEPCO) Takashi Kawamura told reporters on Thursday,
reported Reuters.

"We could have decided much earlier, and that
is Tepco's responsibility."The plan still requires the approval
of the Japanese government before TEPCO can proceed.

Some 770,000 tons
(metric) of tritium-containing water is currently stored in 580 tanks
at the plant, reported the Japan Times. Toxic water at the plant is
currently being treated through a processing system that can remove
62 different types of radioactive material, except tritium.The local
fishermen cooperative has hit out at the plan, saying it had not been
discussed with local residents.

“Releasing (tritium) into the sea
will create a new wave of unfounded rumors, making our efforts all
for naught,” Kanji Tachiya, head of a local fishermen cooperative,
told the Japan Times.

Situated 10 meters above sea-level, three of the
nuclear power plant’s six reactors’ cooling systems were crippled
by flooding caused by the tsunami, making the disaster the worst
since the Chernobyl catastrophe in the USSR in 1986.

The
plan still requires the approval of the Japanese government before
TEPCO can proceed.

Some 770,000 tons (metric) of tritium-containing
water is currently stored in 580 tanks at the plant, reported the
Japan Times.

Toxic water at the plant is currently being treated
through a processing system that can remove 62 different types of
radioactive material, except tritium.The local fishermen cooperative
has hit out at the plan, saying it had not been discussed with local
residents

.“Releasing (tritium) into the sea will create a new wave
of unfounded rumors, making our efforts all for naught,” Kanji
Tachiya, head of a local fishermen cooperative, told the Japan
Times..

Situated 10 meters above sea-level, three of the nuclear power
plant’s six reactors’ cooling systems were crippled by flooding
caused by the tsunami, making the disaster the worst since the
Chernobyl catastrophe in the USSR in 1986.